Evidential and Argumentative Functions of Dynamic Appearance Verbs in Italian: The Example of Rivelare and Emergere

Abstract

This contribution examines the way dynamic appearance verbs in Italian function as lexical evidential strategies and signal inferential relations in argumentative discourse. In argumentative discourse, evidential markers and strategies can be hypothesized to function as “argumentative indicators” (van Eemeren et al. in Argumentative indicators in discourse. A pragma-dialectical study. Springer, Dordrecht, 2007) by contributing to signal argumentative relations (see Rocci in Argumentation 22:165–189, 2008; J Pragmatics 44(15):2129–2149, 2012 on modal verbs in Italian and English and Mieznikowski in Parole, gesti, interpretazioni. Studi linguistici per Carla Bazzanella. Aracne, Roma, pp. 57–78, 2015; Nouveaux Cahiers de Linguistique Francaise 32:103–118, 2015a; Miecznikowski and Musi in Reflections on theoretical issues in argumentation theory. Springer, Amsterdam, pp. 259–278, 2015; Musi in Dalle apparenze alle inferenze: i verbi sembrare e apparire come indicatori argomentativi, 2015 on perception and appearance verbs in Italian). The present analysis focuses on two Italian appearance verbs, rivelare and emergere. Differently from the more studied appearance verb to seem and corresponding verbs in Romance languages (cf. Cornillie, in Ital J Linguist 19:109–128, 2007; Aijmer in Funct Lang 16(1):63–88, 2009; Almeida in Discourse Studies 17(2):121–140, 2015), these verbs denote dynamic eventualities rather than states. The analysis focuses on uses that denote an eventuality of knowledge acquisition and on performative contexts in which these acquire an evidential function. In the discussion, it is shown how the study of dynamic appearance verb constructions makes not only a lexicological contribution in the domain of perception and mental verbs, but aims, above all, at underlining the role of verb-based lexical constructions in the expression of the basic pragmatic categories of information source and argumentative relations. On the theoretical level, it also sheds some light on the relation between the two mentioned categories, which overlap as to the type of relevant conceptual relations (especially as far as argumentation and indirect sources of the inferential type are concerned), but differ as to their communicative functions and as to their contribution to text organization.